


So Much Noise

by theshalashaska



Category: Metal Gear
Genre: M/M, Set after mgs1, not much really goes on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-06
Updated: 2015-03-06
Packaged: 2018-03-16 13:56:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3490874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theshalashaska/pseuds/theshalashaska
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"There is so much noise... there always has been."</p>
            </blockquote>





	So Much Noise

**Author's Note:**

> Not much really goes on here, sort of a look into their relationship in the story. I wrote this for the MGSValentine's Day Exchange, for fastandfurherious. 
> 
> This is actually (surprisingly) my first fanfic for MGS, and anyone who knows me knows MGS is my favourite thing ever, so yeah, I don't know what really happened there.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, and thanks to any and all who leave kudos/comments.

     There is so much noise. In truth, there always has been, but for awhile it had seemed distant and untouchable. A distraction. He had forced himself to shut it all out with everything else, crammed it down into the depths of his mind and slammed a lid on the top. He remembers training. He remembers being young and naive.

 _Sunlight, grass. A breeze softly ruffling his chin-length hair. The yellow butterfly—his target—alighted on a small clump of purple flowers. He steadied the muzzle, hardly breathing as he lined up the sights. A gunshot in the distance caused him to falter, only momentarily._ Maybe he won’t—

_A hand cuffed his unguarded left ear. He fumbled with the gun, and reached his fingers up to check it. The other man caught his wrist before the motion could be completed._

_“Never falter,” the gravelly voice said, lowly, softly. Deadly. “Do not move, you’ll alert them. Do not flinch, or you’ll die. Do not listen to anything that does not bring you to your objective. Complete your mission.”_

_Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the butterfly rise unknowingly away…_

     A learning experience, nothing more. But a vital one. From that day onward, he had forgotten how to listen for anything but the enemy. He had been able to shut out the excess sound for years and years, up until the day he met Hal.

     It wasn’t so much meeting Hal that had made him start to listen as getting to know him. That initial meeting had been… well, strange, to say the least. He’d been confused ( _otaku_? Dave still wasn’t entirely sure what that was). How could the creator of something so horrible be so odd and naive?

     Hal had parted ways at Shadow Moses before he could ask, and Dave had thought that would be the last time they’d ever see each other. He left the island with Meryl and returned to his fortress of solitude, where the ice and snow had once kept the rest of the world out. Shadow Moses had taken the lid off, and the noise had once more returned, blaring in his ears. Within a few months, Meryl left with an apologetic smile and an awkward hug.

     “I’ve asked someone else to come up here. I don’t think it’s good for you to just be all alone with your dogs. Don’t worry, you know him.”

     A few days later, there was a knock at the door. Beer in hand, Dave lifted himself from the chair to answer the door. He didn’t know who he had expected, but Hal Emmerich was the last person on his mind. He had stood hunched over in the doorway with a nervous grimace and three suitcases. _How on earth did he make it all the way out here without freezing to death?_

     “H-h-hey, Snake. B-been awhile.”

     Dave had blinked at him, then moved aside and gestured into the living room after a moment’s hesitation. “I didn’t know it would be you.”

     “Hmm? Meryl didn’t tell you? She said…”

     Dave shook his head. “Didn’t say who, that’s all. You can put your stuff over by the chair, I’ll move it into your room later.”

     Hal gave him a tentative smile. “Ah, th-thanks, Snake.”

     “Dave.”

     “…Dave.”

     He grunted and retreated back to his spot before the fireplace.

     The next few weeks had been strange, to say the least. Hal was very different from Meryl—much more than Dave had predicted, that is. Whereas Meryl was generally self-sufficient and systematic, Hal would go days without eating, if not prompted, and constantly switched between a long stream of babble to absolute and eerie silence.

     “Have you eaten?”

     “Oh, I… no, not yet. I just wanted to finish up with this last bit before—”

     “I’ll take care of it.”

     They reached a point where Dave wouldn’t even ask anymore. He’d walk in with something warm, set it on the table, then walk back out. As time passed, Hal moved out into the living room to work while Dave read or relaxed on the couch. There was a TV, but Dave rarely used it.

     “It’s either nonsense that can’t even be classified as news or a movie that lasts for an hour or two, and then you’re left with nothing.”

     Sometimes, Dave put music on. There was no one genre in particular, just whatever he happened to find first. On occasion, he would ask Hal if he had a preference that day. The constant sound began to fade into the background—not completely, but it became less racket and more of a comforting lull always at the back of his mind.

     It was soothing, almost, in the way that music could be. Hal’s voice—his talking, his laughing, his murmuring—replaced both the silence and the explosion surrounding his eardrums. He had infiltrated Dave’s life so smoothly, so seamlessly. He never would have thought it, from Hal, of all people…

     “Dave.”

     The softly spoken name is accompanied by a light shaking of his shoulder. Dave opens his eyes to slits in a feeble attempt to both shield himself from the light and to see the speaker. He glances at Hal as long as he can before closing his lids once more to blot out the searing lamplight.

     “What time is it?”

     “It’s two… in the morning. But you slept most of yesterday, so I thought you’d want to get some work done. We’re running low on food and some other stuff, I made a list, and…”

     'We.' Dave smiles to himself. That word, too, had snuck it's way into the house. For so long it had been 'I, me, my' and 'they, them, theirs.' It's nice to be able to share something with someone, for the first time in a long time.

     “Hal?”

     The scientist stops in his tracks. “Yes?”

     Dave stands up, puts his hands on Hal’s shoulders, and regards him for a second. Hesitant… _Ah, what the hell,_ he thinks, and leans forward. Hal doesn’t make a sound—not one of surprise, as Dave had expected, or one of anger, which he had hoped against. It doesn’t last long, but it is long enough. When Dave pulls his lips away, he gazes as Hal for a long moment before releasing his shoulders.

     “C’mon, we’ve got stuff to buy.”

     Dave turns and heads toward the door before he gets the chance to see Hal’s gentle smile or the spark in his eyes.


End file.
